Ex-union boss tell his side of 'slush fund' story

Mark Baker

DISGRACED former union leader Ralph Blewitt has given sworn statements to Victorian police that contain allegations about a payment to a building contractor at an Abbotsford house owned by Prime Minister Julia Gillard in the early 1990s.

During a three-hour meeting with fraud squad detectives, Mr Blewitt also gave details about the establishment of an Australian Workers Union slush fund and the purchase of a Fitzroy property partly bought with more than $100,000 stolen from the fund.

Lawyers representing Mr Blewitt said he declined to make public details of the specific allegations, which were made after he was given guarantees that the information would not be used against him in any future prosecutions.

''He's made three sworn statements to police. The police are now going to investigate the matters outlined in his statements,'' said Robert Galbally of law firm Galbally Rolfe.

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Victorian police are considering reopening a formal investigation into allegations involving more than $400,000 stolen from the West Australian-based AWU Workplace Reform Association by Ms Gillard's former boyfriend and AWU official Bruce Wilson.

The Fitzroy property was bought by Mr Wilson in the name of Mr Blewitt, who has admitted to fraud involving stolen union funds.

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At an August media conference Ms Gillard rejected persistent allegations that money from the Workplace Reform Association had been used for work on her Abbotsford house.

A defiant Julia Gillard says that anybody who has an allegation of wrongdoing by her should put it. Photo: Jason South

Ms Gillard on Friday attacked fresh revelations about her involvement in legal work associated with the purchase of the Fitzroy property.

Fairfax revealed online on Thursday evening that Ms Gillard told her law firm partners at Slater & Gordon in 1995 that she knew nothing about a $150,000 mortgage from the firm for the purchase, despite having been involved in its arrangement two years earlier.

A 1993 bank letter shows that Ms Gillard - then a salaried partner with Slater & Gordon - received an insurance certificate of currency, which was required for approval of a $150,000 mortgage provided by the firm's loan department.

''This whole campaign of smear actually boils down to absolutely nothing. Anybody that's got an allegation of wrongdoing by me of any substance, please feel free to put it,'' she said. ''Let's also be clear this wasn't a file that I ran. I was not the partner in charge of it. I was not the solicitor operating it. And so I don't think that it's remarkable in any way that I wouldn't have full recall of documents that were on a file that I didn't run as a solicitor.''

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said: ''I think all of us would be happy to give the Prime Minister the benefit of the doubt, but in order to do that she has to give us a full explanation. What we've had from the Prime Minister over the last several weeks is just a lot of stonewalling. There are issues about what happened back in the 1990s with the slush fund. There are issues of union governance and how these matters are handled by the current government. And then there are issues about the truthfulness of the answers Julia Gillard has given as Prime Minister.'' With AAP